Bolero - ARC + Day 6

Day 6

13:00 marks the beginning of our last day at sea on this leg. We are eagerly anticipating our arrival in Mindelo, steadily making progress under our spinnaker.

Flying fish continue to fly around us, the distances some of them travel above the beautiful blue water is incredible. The sea in the morning was very smooth with hardly a ripple, not what you expect to see in the middle of the ocean.

Ian and Gwyn have been monitoring the boats in our class on AIS to check their progress against ours……. Once a racer, always a racer!

We spotted the rugged mountains of Santo Antao at 15:00 as they peeped out through the haze.

We continued to make steady progress towards our destination. Gwyn was on the helm and Nick popped his head up from down below and said that she could steer for speed, rather than a course as we were going to have to gybe to make Mindelo. And then the wind coughed, the spinnaker folded and we slowed right down. After about half an hour the wind filled in again, we started moving, and with the bonus of sailing the correct course for Mindelo.

We ate our evening meal of tomato and mozzarella pasta and cleared everything away in anticipation of our arrival. The wind was beginning to pick up as we made our way between Sao Vicente and Santo Antao. We prepared to douse the spinnaker with the snuffer so the decks were clear before dark. Unfortunately the snuffer had twisted over the 30 hours that it had been hoisted, so we lowered the halyard and bundled the seeming acres of spinnaker into the saloon. By the time we had finished with all the fun and games it was twilight. The colours of the sea, sky and mountains in the glomming was magical. We radioed Rally Control to say that we were 2 miles from the finish.

We crossed the finish line under mainsail at 18:58:43 local time. The line was between a small island and the headland, a large bay opened up behind the headland. It was very dark and moonless at this point and there were no navigation lights to guide us to the marina. We radioed rally control again to say that we had finished and were given berthing instructions. We moored with our stern to the pontoon at 20:10. A cup of tea and a piece of cake were priorities as soon as we were secured. It was a really good job that Gwyn had been so diligent with the tidying up after dinner as the saloon was completely filled with the spinnaker. Gwyn and Maz wrestled it into the corner of the settee to be dealt with the next day. A beer in the cockpit soon followed the tea and cake. Paul from Blonde Moment joined us too.

None of us needed much encouragement to go to bed, and were all in the land of nod within a few seconds of our heads touching our pillows.

It’s been a great 6 days at sea. The time has gone so quickly. None of the books we brought have been finished. We have 2100 miles ahead of us on our next leg, so maybe we will get some read by the time we reach Grenada.

Fair winds
Nick, Maz, Ian and Gwyn